Wild Yeast

For about a month now, I have been making bread with a wild yeast starter. Finally, the starter is performing reliably and my bread not only tastes good, it now also rises - generally considered a good thing for bread. It is still a bit dense, but I love it. It is so cool to watch that mixture of plain old flour & water start to bubble and ferment. As you can see in the picture, it almost rises too much, the bread kind of explodes it's seems in the oven - too much surface tension? Is there such a thing??

I am using a recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks, Baking with Julia. The recipe is Pain de Campagne. I've also done a lot of reading over at the Fresh Loaf. That is one fantastic website. I have learned more about baking bread in the last few weeks than in all my bread baking years (which is a lot considering I started at ten!). I am using a firm starter, almost like a bread dough itself. It keeps well on the counter and doesn't seem to care if I feed it regularly or not. If I am not going to be suing it for a while I pop it in the fridge until a day before I need it. The posts on the FreshLoaf by Jmonkey are really helpful on this subject.

My next adventure is from Peter Reinhart's book Whole Grain Breads using flour ground in my mother's mill. Wells actually that's adventure #2, first I am using the regular whole wheat from the store. I haven't had a chance to get over to Mom's and ruin my hearing yet. Grain mills are REALLY LOUD.

Chick a dee dee dee

I love chickadees. There are lots at our bird feeders and they are so cute. One of the cats ate one yesterday, but I will forgive it. This winter I borrowed a book from the library, which I can't remember the name of, which had little felted birds in it. I didn't really like them so much, but I LOVE my chickadee. I used the same techniques and needle felted this little sweet thing. The beak is commercial black felt, a small cheat, but okay I think.

Bison Down

We visited some friends who farm bison the other week and they dropped a little pile of darkness on me that they'd just picked up in the corral. It's not exactly shedding time up here in the snow, but someone lost a bit of blanket I guess. Anyway, it was lovely, soft, and very clean. All I had to do was dehair it, which I did by grasping the hair in one hand and the down in the other and gently tugging until the hair came loose. I did that for the whole pile (only a few grams) and then rinsed the down in the sink to get the dust off, of which there was very little, being as all our dust is covered in snow, lol!

I wasn't sure how to deal with it though as the staple length is only about 2 cm. It is very crimpy though and so soft you almost can't even feel it! I did some internet research and decided that rolling it into punis was the best way to go and it worked very well indeed. I have never rolled a puni in my life (my husband things that sounds kind of dirty...hmmm) but since the fibre did not get all mussed up when I rinsed it, the whole process of carding (barely) and rolling was very easy. Spinning Spider Jenny has lots of good posts on carding and rolling punis and I would say that is where I got the most helpful info.

I spun the punis woolen style on my lightest spindle which I used supported. It's a bottom whorl with a fairly flat tip, so it was fairly stable on a flat surface. I used a cookie sheet on the floor or the kitchen table if I was standing. It took a LOT of twist, so much that I didn't actually get enough twist in the last bit and it kept falling apart when I plied it. I mean a LOT of twist. Lots lots lots. Like you are going nuts. Really. I navajo plied just a little bit to get enough to knit the sample above and then did the rest as 2 ply almost lace weight. It also really bloomed so the yarn was a bit bigger than I anticipated. I only have maybe 10 metres, but it is so soft and lovely. What to do with 10 metres though?

Here are some link to my favourite posts from Jenny Bakriges blog, the Spinning Spider Jenny. She has a new book due out in the spring which I can't wait to see. If it is anything like her blog, it will be a treasure. Many of my best spinning skills were gained from reading her blog.

Making Punis
More on Punis
Please Don't Kill the Baby Bird
Drafting Techniques for Handspinners
Opinions on Drafting Techniques for Handspinners

And three posts on hand carding:
Hand Carding Wool Locks For Spinning
My Dad & more on hand carding
Hand Carding: Keeping Colors Clear and Fiber Blends

Thanks Jenny.

My Hand Carders

Here is the completed pair. I've never done any wood burning before, so I am happy with the result. The pattern is taken from a Scandinavian embroidery book.

Christmas Dove

The kids wanted to make some of the Christmas Doves from the Usborne Christmas craft book, but I really didn't feel like using fabric so... out came the paper scissors and glue. The birds the kids made were so cute I couldn't resist making some myself and gluing them to some blank cards I had. The littlest one turned hers into a princess birdie with a crown and long hair! Very cute.

Hand Carders

I bought some hand cards a couple of weeks ago to start an ambitious project of blending some wool & silk to spin and knit the cover sweater on the Interweave Knits Spring 09 issue.

I looked at them today and decided to make them a bit prettier. It's my first attempt at wood burning and I'm doing it with a fabric tool, but so far, I am pleased with the result. I have always loved this design which is from the cover of a Scandinavian embroidery book from the library.

They are not done yet, my wrist has cramped up so I had to take a break. Not quite sure how to fill in the solid-coloured parts. Each carder has a slightly different design. I'll post a photo when I'm done.

Gina The Second